Unions suspend Air Algerie talks

Union leaders suspended talks with Air Algerie management Sunday, saying a promise to reinstate staff sacked during last week's strike had not been honoured. "We withdrew from the talks after we realised that our colleagues had been prevented from resuming work," Yassine Hamamouche, president of the SNPNC union representing staff at the state-run airline, told AFP. "Management undertook to sort out this situation and talks should resume Monday at 2:00 pm (1300 GMT)" if the sanctions against some strikers were lifted, he added. The four-day strike, which ran from Monday to Thursday, came as many French-based Algerian expatriates were trying to make their annual trip to see relatives. It left hundreds of angry customers stranded at airports in the two countries and airline chief Mohamed Salah Boultif estimated that the strike had cost the company 317,000 euros ($448,000). The action was only suspended after the Algerian government intervened. The deal brokered by the office of Prime Minister Ahmed Ouyahia included a promise that sacked strikers would be reinstated and a decision by the airline to make some staff redundant scrapped. Earlier Sunday, Boultif told state radio his airline hoped to find a compromise that would satisfy the airline's 9,000 employees. While he said he could not go beyond the 20-percent increase already granted staff -- who had been calling for a 106-percent rise -- he said he did have some margin for manoeuvre. Air Algerie flies to more than 70 destinations.